Sales and prices of graphics processing units (GPUs) have soared in recent years because bitcoin miners have been snapping them up to create server farms dedicated to attaining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin and some other digital currencies can be awarded by solving complex mathematical algorithms known as “Proof-of-Work,” also known as crypto mining.

In order to beat out others for digital currency, tech savvy users and even groups have taken to buying high-end “gaming processor cards” – GPUs (otherwise known as graphics processing unit cards) – to build “mining rigs”